IBM is closing a major immigration route for consulting workers. The company is ending H-1B visa and green card sponsorship for a majority of roles in IBM Consulting, its biggest division, affecting foreign workers who rely on employer support to work in the United States.
Impacted employees can transfer to IBM positions outside the US or leave the company by the end of 2026. An internal company document shared with consulting managers says affected workers can continue working for IBM outside the country or leave by the end of the year. The deadline is not exactly a warm welcome mat.
IBM confirmed the decision and tied it to changes in skilled-worker availability and client requirements. A company spokesperson said IBM Consulting had used US high-skilled visa programs to address skill shortages, but participation had been declining for a number of years.
“IBM Consulting participates in U.S. high-skilled visa programs to address skill shortages,” the spokesperson said. “That participation has been declining for a number of years and as skill availability and client need have evolved, we have opted to discontinue visa and green card sponsorship for the majority of such roles in IBM Consulting.”
IBM’s H-1B numbers were already moving lower
US Citizenship and Immigration Services data shows IBM received 2,045 H-1B petition approvals in FY25, down 29.7% from 2,906 in FY24. The decline focused on new employment applications, which fell 62.8%, from 1,348 to 501.
Of IBM’s 2,045 approvals in FY25, 501 covered initial employment and 1,544 covered continuing employment, including visa extensions, amendments, and changes of employer. Initial-employment approvals made up 24.5% of the total, compared with 46.4% in FY2024.
The pattern continued into FY2026. IBM received 1,611 approvals between October 2025 and June 2026, including 708 for initial employment and 903 for continuing employment. Those are partial-year figures and should not be compared directly with full-year totals.
IBM employs more than 150,000 people worldwide, so the policy affects a specific part of a large workforce rather than the entire company. Still, the decision removes a route that foreign workers have used to start or continue US-based careers in consulting.
A tougher US immigration environment
IBM’s move comes as the Donald Trump administration tightens employment-based immigration programs. In September 2025, the White House announced a one-time $100,000 fee on certain new H-1B petitions for workers hired from outside the US.
The White House has also proposed $100,000 filing fees for H-1B visas. Critics have called those fees a corporate tax on foreign talent, a label that captures the basic dispute: companies want access to skilled workers, while the administration wants to make that access expensive enough to discourage them.
IBM is joining a growing list of technology and IT services companies facing restrictions on employment-based immigration. Last month, the US Department of Labor suspended Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies, and Capgemini from participating in the Permanent Labor Certification, or PERM, programme.
The suspension prevents those companies from filing new PERM applications or processing pending ones. PERM is a key step in the employer-sponsored green card process, so the action reaches beyond temporary H-1B visas and into the longer path toward permanent residency.
The policy shift also lands amid political tension over how far immigration enforcement should go. Following Republicans’ massive midterm defeat, Trump told 60 Minutes that it had occasionally been “too tough,” then walked back those comments after an outcry from supporters and later promoted immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as his chief of staff.
For IBM Consulting workers, the practical result is less complicated than the politics: most affected roles will no longer come with US visa or green card sponsorship. Workers can relocate within IBM outside the US or leave by the end of 2026. The paperwork may be bureaucratic, but the choice is blunt.
Based on
- IBM Ends H-1B, Green Card Sponsorship for Most Roles in Consulting Division — analyticsindiamag.com
- IBM Is Winding Down Immigration Sponsorship in Its Biggest Unit – Business Insider — businessinsider.com
- IBM to curb sponsorship of visas, green cards | Semafor — semafor.com
- 1 in 4 workers fear AI could take their jobs; strategist says “decision paralysis” setting in – CBS Minnesota — cbsnews.com
